Abstract/Summary

‘Cinephilia’ is the love for cinema that animates the relationship between audiences and films. But it is also the engine that moves the filmmaking machine itself. The essayistic documentary Films to Die For investigates how films are born from other films, and are a matter of life and death for filmmakers. Wim Wenders’s The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge, 1982), an iconic cinephilic film, serves as the entry point into an international web of interconnected films. Ending with the death of a Hollywood producer and a German independent filmmaker, The State of Things allows for a meditation on the presumed ‘death of cinema’ after the postmodern ‘end of history’. At the same time, it resonates in fascinating ways with the real death of Cinema Novo leader Glauber Rocha after the critical failure of his last film, a tragedy predicted by Rocha himself as he meets Patrick Bauchau, the lead actor in The State of Things, on location in Sintra and declares: ‘Sintra is a beautiful place to die’. Exploring the leitmotif of cinematic and real deaths, Films to Die For travels through Wenders’s complicated experience with Coppola and Hammett; his ‘appropriation’ of cast and crew of Raúl Ruiz’s The Territory; Laura Mulvey’s relationship with Bauchau, who introduced her to cinephilia and appears in some of her films; and Wenders’s close connection with Walter Salles via Portugal and the crisscrossing of their own films. In meandering through these stories, Films to Die For brings into conversation a collection of dazzling cinematic moments, from Europe, Hollywood and Brazil, evidencing how works from across history and geography feed from and flow into each other in a seamless continuum. These share the screen with original footage captured in Portugal, a site of cinephilic convergence and privileged location for several of the films in focus. Exclusive interviews with film directors Wim Wenders and Walter Salles, film critic and director Laura Mulvey, and Portuguese film producer Paulo Branco reveal the perils and passions behind the history and stories of their films.